portal

portal

1. an entrance, gateway, or doorway, esp one that is large and impressive

2.Anatomy

a. of or relating to a portal vein

b. of or relating to a porta

Portal

An entrance, gate, or door to a building or courtyard, often decorated; it marks the transition from the public exterior to the private interior space.

Portal

in architecture, an opening, usually an entrance into a building. Typical ancient Egyptian and ancient Greek portals were simply ornamented and had level crosspieces. In ancient Mesopotamia portals were arched, and in the Near and Middle East peshtak portals were typical; these were rectangular and had a cut-out lancet arch. Beginning in the 11th century arched, or perspective, portals became widespread in romanesque, gothic, and ancient Russian architecture. These portals were projections whose corners had columns joined by archivolts. Renaissance and baroque portals usually had pilasters and columns that supported the entablature or frontal.

portal

[′pȯrd·əl]

(anatomy)

Of or pertaining to the porta hepatis.

Pertaining to the portal vein or system.

(engineering)

A redundant frame consisting of two uprights connected by a third member at the top.

(mining engineering)

An entrance to a mine.

The rock face at which a tunnel is started.

portal

1. An impressive or monumental entrance, gate, or door to a building or courtyard, often decorated.

2. A structural framework consisting of a beam supported by two columns to which it is connected with sufficient rigidity to hold virtually unchanged the original angles between the intersecting members. (See illustration p. 752.)

PORTAL

portal

(World-Wide Web)

A website that aims to be an entry point
to the World-Wide Web, typically offering a search engine
and/or links to useful pages, and possibly news or other
services. These services are usually provided for free in the
hope that users will make the site their default home page
or at least visit it often. Popular examples are Yahoo and
MSN. Most portals on the Internet exist to generate
advertising income for their owners, others may be focused on
a specific group of users and may be part of an intranet or
extranet. Some may just concentrate on one particular
subject, say technology or medicine, and are known as a
vertical portals.

portal

A Web "supersite" that provides a variety of services including Web search, news, blogs, discussion groups, shopping and links to other sites. The major general-purpose portals are Yahoo, MSN and AOL, all of which offer free Web-based e-mail accounts. TV networks and newspapers provide general-purpose portals, but not e-mail. Many portals allow the home page to be personalized (see personal portal). Prior to the Web, CompuServe and AOL functioned as portals, aggregating information from various sources.

The Vortal Portals also serve vertical markets. Trade magazines, associations and special interest groups host vertical portals (vortals) and provide news and articles for their industry such as IT, banking and insurance. The vortal may also include general information such as top news stories and weather; however, their search capabilities are often limited to their own archives, rather than the entire Web. See corporate portal, business intelligence portal and portal server.

But superstition, among other legends of this mansion, repeats the wondrous tale, that on the anniversary night of Britain's discomfiture the ghosts of the ancient governors of Massachusetts still glide through the portal of the Province House.

Yet, as I glanced at the stately staircase down which the procession of the old governors had descended, and as I emerged through the venerable portal whence their figures had preceded me, it gladdened me to be conscious of a thrill of awe.

Hurling their burdens in one vast heap within the portal, they threw burning torches upon the top of it.

For forty yards round the portal the ground was black with writhing, screaming figures, who struggled up and hurled themselves down again, tossing this way and that, sightless, scorched, with fire bursting from their tattered clothing.

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